Pediatric TracheostomiesFor parents and caregivers of children with tracheostomies. Please limit discussion to seeking and sharing of information pertaining to tracheostomy care, medical issues, special needs, disabilities, networking and moral support.

DH was wondering how often we "could" change our DD's trach? He thought we'd be better changing it more than once/week right now. Last week we had an incident where the Low Min Vol alarm on her vent was going off while we were at the doctors office. We got her home and onto her home vent and it did the same thing. He was thinking it was the circuit. But then I stopped and thought, it can't be since it did it on both vents/circuits. So I said let's change her trach instead. She had a pretty decent size plug in there.

So he was just thinking that we could change it more often. We have at least 5 of her trachs and we can sterilize them. So is there any reason NOT to change them more than once/week?

We have gone through periods where we changed Natalie's trach every 3 or 4days, usually when the humidity is low and air is dry (like now). When everything is in perfect balance we go 7 days. The only time I would get concerned is if trach changes have been difficult or their was any airway trauma or irritation. I don't see a problem with more often trach changes if needed, but others have more years at this than us.

We have gone through periods where we changed Natalie's trach every 3 or 4days, usually when the humidity is low and air is dry (like now). When everything is in perfect balance we go 7 days. The only time I would get concerned is if trach changes have been difficult or their was any airway trauma or irritation. I don't see a problem with more often trach changes if needed, but others have more years at this than us.

Good luck.

We change once a week. Changing too much can cause granulomas. If Addisyn has been sick, I will change every 3-4 days.

Cindy we live in Canada and our trach changes are usually done every six months in the hospital, unless of course an emergency trach change is needed. Our doctors believe it is still a foreign object entering the system, so the less times needed for change the better.
We also do not reuse our trachs they get thrown out.

Gage last year had perhaps two colds, his immune system is like my husbands......strong like an ox!

We do weekly changes, unless Joseph is sick.. then I usually do ever two/three days..when I can "feel" something in the trach and I cant get it out with the suction. (usually when I put my ear to his trach.. there is a whistling sound also because of the buildup)

This time of year we have to increase humidity - that might be a better solution than changing the trach several times a week. Our first winter home I found that I did change the trach more often than usual because of the dry air and secretion built up in the trach. The last couple of winters I've found it much easier to play with the humidity and it avoids the buildup for the most part.

We actually change the trach every 24 hours per our infectious disease doctor. Keyan was constantly getting these very odd infections so he came up with this plan. The theory behind it is that antibiotics can not kill anything that is haging out on the trach because ther is no blood flow to the trach. Basically, we are de-bulking the trach of the bugs. We have been doing that for almost a year, and while I can't say that it has prevented infections, I do think that it helps. And, for what it is worth, Keyan has zero problems with granuloms or scar tissue. She also has a very stable stoma since the darn thing has been in for five years! Anyhow, that is how we do it!

Stephanie

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Stephanie--Mom to Jamahl -10 and McKenzy, Keyan, Sidney, and Abagayle born 11-21-04. Keyan trached since 2-18-05. Talk about a crazy house!www.hoganclan7.blogspot.com

Hi
well i think you will get many answers for this, i think that if you feel you need to do a emergency trach change then do it and if you can fix things by controlling the amount of humidity (if you use one) then i would do that and see if it makes a difference for her. In theory many Doctors will tell you that changing the trach frequently can cause problems, especially irritation, bleeding, etc, in our case not recommended unless there is a emergency. you could try saline nebs if you feel she is too dry, if there is desat issues then of course change it. honestly because her stoma isnt really considered old i would try and stay away from changing to often other than weekly (if thats what the doctors have said) you have a shiley trach right? at least thats what the pic looks like. some people change the trach monthly , weekly, every 2 weeks and so on.you should try to stay on a regular schedule. are you having desat issues at all? could the size be the problem? did they check to see if the size is working for ( maybe mention it to them) . here we dont reuse trachs but many people do because that is all they get and their kids have no issues, but we cannot take that chance because the risk for Kaylie is to high.. if you dont hvae enough trachs check with us and see if anyone has any extra, how many have you been asking for with your order?

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